I am a 73 year old Australian male living in Nambour, Queensland, Australia.
I have been a homebrewer of beer for over 40 years and I love drinking all the different styles, from pilsners to stouts.
I have also enjoyed brewing and drinking alcoholic, of course, ginger beer, lemonade and apple cider.
I'm far from being a brewing purist and have only used commercially available canned worts, never went down the path of starting from scratch and using the basic ingredients to brew my own unique style beer.
I've now become interested in giving distilling a try, so I've started off with purchasing a Still Spirits Air Still.
I know it's a bit frowned on as not being a "true and authentic" distiller, but I'm just getting started, just dipping my toe, getting into the spirit of things.
My home just does not have the space or the setup for anything else at this stage.
Anyway, I started fermenting the wash today and in 7 days I'll move onto the distilling stage.
I'm hoping that soon I'll have 2 litres of "Tennessee Bourbon" to sip on, while giving the finger to the government.
The huge tax on spirits here in Australia is shocking.
$28 of a 700mL bottle of spirits (40% ABV) will go straight to the tax office in the form of excise.
So, a 700ml bottle of Makers Mark costs AUD$54.95, with AUD$28 going in tax!
Highway robbery!
Sorry if I've raved on too long, but just wanted to come on here and learn from y'all about the process of distilling.
Cheers.
